Daily High Culture 14: The Infinite Speech of the Heart

Classical Rebellion

Music is the inarticulate speech of the heart, which cannot be compressed into words—because it is infinite. Richard Wagner Great music will forever speak to our hearts for this very reason. I have done a lot of talking and writing about music, having written at least 1,000 articles over the past 10 years. I’m doing even more talking about it now in the formats of YouTube, podcasting, and social media, along with the print versions. None of the words I use will ever come close to the experience of simply listening to music with an intelligent ear and an open heart. Even this quote by Wagner, as succinct as it is, pales in comparison to the music he wrote. The whole point of quotes such as Wagner’s and the hundreds of thousands of words I’ve written is to help in the creation of an informed ear and develop an open heart through which to experience music to the fullest. The words we use about music are meant to help us explore music as opposed to trying to replace the musical experience with a literary one. What I love about this quote from Wagner is the concept of the inarticulate speech of the heart being eternal. Has anyone ever reached the edge of their heart and identified its limits? Whenever and however we turn inwards, after we traverse the well-worn paths of our heart, we often come around a corner, so to speak and are presented with a new and unexplored vista. It’s difficult to put into words because, as Wagner said, the speech of the heart is eternal. The whole point of this entire project here at Classical Rebellion is to develop our intellect in order to master the inner-self. Listening to music with an open heart is, for many of us, a learned skill. We must have a thought to which our hearts respond with “openness.” I must insist we admit that not all music is the inarticulate speech of the heart. Only music that comes from the heart speaks to the heart. The music for this quote is Wotan’s Farewell from Die Walkure. In this music, we hear the father’s heart breaking as he is forced to be separated from his beloved daughter forever. The piece of art for this quote is The Last Farewell of Wotan and Brunhilde by Ferdinand Leeke. Siegfried Wagner, the son of the composer Richard Wagner, commissioned Leeke to paint a series of paintings showing scenes from ten operas by Wagner